The Hopkinsville City Council was presented with reports focused on updates and support requests from local emergency response agencies before approving a budget amendment to address the repairs at Bluegrass Splash at their Tuesday meeting.
Before they moved into their discussion and approval matters, the Council heard updates regarding the operations of the Hopkinsville Fire Department and Police Department and received presentations from the Christian County Ambulance Board regarding funding and from Christian County Emergency Management regarding two-way radios.
Darrell Gustafson, the Chair of The Ambulance Board shared that since its inception the county’s emergency medical services (EMS) has been operating on the funds they generate from their services. However, with increases to personnel and equipment costs, Gustafson says they can not keep operating on their current model.
Gustafson says their request for aid comes after they have raised their service fees three times to generate more revenue. The Ambulance Board is requesting $300,000 from both the Council and the Christian County Fiscal Court, Gustafson says a total of $600,000 may seem like a lot but EMS are responsible for around 75,000 residents.
Fire Chief, Steve Futrell says stations like theirs typically operate with the help of outside funding. Futrell also talked about the rising costs of medical equipment and the importance of offering his staff competitive wages.
Futrell says for EMS to continue operating effectively they are going to need some help.
The council will discuss what type of assistance they want to provide to the fire department at Thursday’s Committee of the Whole meeting.
The Council then heard from County Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam and Emergency Management Director Randy Graham regarding the installation of two-way radio towers. Gilliam says since he became Judge-Executive he has heard concerns about two-way radio dead spots in the county.
Law enforcement, firefighters and other emergency personnel communicate through two-way radios. To address the matter, Gilliam says he formed a task force and found that when the radio towers were installed eight were originally proposed, but to save on costs only four were installed.
To cover those dead spots, Gilliam proposed that they follow the original eight tower plan. The Council will further discuss expanding two-way radio coverage in the county at a future meeting.
Moving onto their ordinances, the board voted on amending their budget to provide $125,000 for repairs to Bluegrass Splash. Before they voted, resident Loraina Sherrod appeared during public comments urging the Council to approve the repairs needed, because without the water park that means there is one less place for children to have fun during the summer.
Upon second reading the Council approved the repair costs with a vote of 7-to-4 and one abstention.